By nature I am shy; but three years ago,
my father much encouraging me, I
took the post of Land-Protector. 'Twas
not easy facing gypsies, place-spirits,
haunts, bogles, beggars, imps, but now
I've learned at least authority to feign.
And a vigorous guardian has been sore
needed here; we have a gang of good-for-
nothing Wildings troubling our farms.

Long was I patient with these Lost Boys'
petty thefts and pranks; but got no thanks.
No repentance. Enough! They think me a shy
English Rose; their crimes have slowly grown.
Past time to show Ann's ragged runaways
my Land-Protective thorns. Therefore

I don my stoutest mudding-boots and long
blue frock (the hue of power) and cross
that broad flat field--new-scythed,
our harvest just in--surrounding their
Hideout Tree. To the careless eye, a great
writhing common oak; but these miscreants
it shelters go sheer as glass while in
its branches, or their badgery lair
a-tween those crook'd ensorceled roots
like some troll-mum's knotted arms.

So I raise my chin and chant
to the tortuous Oak--
and unseen vap'rous flock
of child-ghosts, crows
truant and unschooled
as curling candle smoke:

"As County Protector,
I curse Ann Sowanseaux,
in the Name of the Light.

Protector: 1: my immune system, fighting illness. 2: Beatrix Potter protected historic Lake Country farms. 3: On the Victorian-era BBC series Candleford, the postmistress ran for county council to keep rents down. Dream-me was younger & shyer, but I had her voice.

Invisible in the tree: the cause of my illness hides in my circulatory, lymph, or nervous system. An organism, or a rebellious attitude?

Tree-lair: echoes Peter Pan and Wendy--the lair of the Lost Boys! To them, I'm the enemy--Captain Hook? Are they orphans, underdogs I should help not curse?

Oak: a pun on OK? 1: The times when I'm okay, asymptomatic. 2: A nod to the best-known cowboy gunbattle: the Showdown at the OK Corral.

Shocked at my severity: Today my sister abruptly asked me to chauffeur her to Santa Cruz, an all-day errand. I said no, then felt selfish and guilty... but didn't back down.